Tomfoolery of the Misfits
by Serenityxiii
Summary: When Roxas is born into Twilight Town he’s invited to join Organization XIII, but he refuses, claiming to belong in the town. How can he expect to live in the town without family, friends, or even a bed to sleep on? What kind of trouble will he get into?


_What's...What's happening to me? …Falling...falling...into darkness..._

The voice…it was fading…it wasn't my voice…but it sounded so…familiar. Almost…mundane. But somehow, I knewI had never heard that voice before.

_Wait…_

That single thought echoed through my head and I struggled to lift my arm, to spread my fingers apart in a desperate attempt to reach out to whoever had spoken.

He hadn't spoken to me, and he couldn't hear me…I knew that much. But…I was alone…everything was dark…

_It's…so dark…_

I was falling…not quickly as though I had jumped out of an airplane and was freefalling without a parachute. It was more like…drifting. It felt like floating on my back in calm ocean waters. I knew I wasn't somewhere out in the middle of the ocean though. No, I was gently drifting into never-ending darkness, and peacefully so, despite the fact that I was tense with unease.

_What's going on? Where am I?_

Though I couldn't help but feel lost and alone, it was almost tranquil too, just floating weightlessly like gravity had been lost for all eternity, smothered out by the suffocating caliginosity.

_**Who **__am I? I don't understand…_

I felt like a feather gliding along on the wind's back on a breeze that was just strong enough to keep me floating in the air, but just gentle enough that I was drifting like a fallen leaf in the middle of autumn, falling gracefully to the leaf-strewn ground.

The drifting was so relaxing and peaceful that my anxiety began to ebb away, slipping right through my fingers. I forgot for a moment that I knew nothing about my disposition or personality. I disregarded the fact that I wasn't in a situation that took place on a daily basis. I was free from the premonition that I knew, deep down, I was supposed to be feeling.

As my thoughts and worries slowly melted away, the weightlessness augmented. It was like the less I worried myself with hectic, diffuse thoughts about what was going on and what was to become of me, the less trepidation I felt. So, with that tidbit of useful information, I let it all go. Or, tried to.

I tried to stop thinking about where I was and what was going on, just…forgot it all. I think it's physically impossible to be in a more euphoric state than I was in that fleeting moment.

Ironically, as soon as all those dense thoughts were finally free from me all together, I was reminded of gravity (I know all good things _eventually_ come to an end…but that was just cruel. I guess the next thing for me to learn should be that…life is full of cruelty).

Suddenly _everything_ came crashing down on me all at once. I was no longer drifting weightlessly and infinitely through never-ending darkness. I actually weighed something more than a feather now, and after drifting for what seemed like such a long time so buoyantly, actually harboring the weight of a teenage boy felt strange. It was as if someone was sitting on my back, weighing me down even further. Or half my body had been replaced with lead.

Neither sounded very beguiling.

On top of the all but subtle reminder that gravity was still in existence, my troubled thoughts had returned in a rush, cascading into my head like accumulated water finally released from a dam.

Where was I? _Who_ was I? What just happened? What was that smell? It was so familiar…but I couldn't put my finger on it…

I was laying facedown, my arms, hands, neck, and face, which were exposed from clothing, tickled and itched, that familiar smell filling my nose every time I inhaled.

The position I was suddenly thrown into was proving to be rather uncomfortable—I was on my stomach, my left arm at a right angle next to my head, and my right hand under me, wedged in between my sternum and the ground. My hand was beginning to tingle and go numb, aching with my full weight pressed against it. I pulled my hand out from underneath me slowly, the smallest of movements being somewhat of a struggle after such an insubstantial feeling.

Every inch of me felt inhumanly heavy. Even my eyelids, as though I hadn't slept in two and a half days, only managing to stay awake by the consumption of caffeine and sugar. However, I was not tired, only confused, and I longed to know what was going on.

Finally, I opened my eyes and my vision slowly adjusted.

Grass.

That's what I smelled. I closed my eyes again and inhaled deeply, taking special care to take a vague note on the kind of familiarity I sensed before. It was as though someone had explained the smell to me in detail, explained how it felt, but I had never taken a whiff of the aroma for myself before.

I clenched my hands, grasping handfuls of grass tightly. Needless to say, that wasn't very helpful as I tried to pull myself up with a groan. I only managed in ripping handfuls of grass out of the ground. Had I simply…_forgotten_ just how weakly the blades of grass cling to their roots, to life? How does anyone just forget something like that? I suppose that as a child, you don't really think of it that way. But no matter your age, you always know that grass is easy to rip away from the ground, sometimes root and all. So how did I fail to remember that?

Disregarding my thought, I pushed myself up by digging my fingernails into the dirt as I finally found enough strength to get onto my hands and knees. Before that small burst of newfound strength could leave, I pushed myself all the way up, stumbling forward a little when I got to my feet, feeling my full weight on my tired legs.

This all felt so wrong. _I _felt wrong. Here I was in the middle of a forest clearing, staring at the grass below my feet and hardly taking notice of the iron gate that separated me from the old mansion. I couldn't remember _anything_ about myself. Who was I? Why was I out here all by myself? Did my friends just…ditch me here when I fell over unconscious? How long had I been here? Were my parents looking for me? Did I even _have _parents? Friends?

What if I didn't? I couldn't _remember_ having any. What if someone had just dropped me off here? Why would someone want to do that though? Was I really _that _insignificant? …Maybe I was a thorn in their side and they just had to get rid of me. Either way, it wasn't good on my self-esteem to think that someone actually hated me that much.

I was a no one. A nothing. Why else would no one be by my side, trying to wake me? It's either because no one knew I was there, or they just didn't care. Maybe no one knew who I was yet, so…no one really had a chance to hate me. I really hoped so. I didn't just have some severe case of amnesia; that much I was sure of.

Besides that, there was a grand total of three things that I knew and was entirely confident in: First, I was a homo sapien. Second, I was male. And third…I knew absolutely nothing more about myself. My name, my age, my height, my weight. Nothing. Whether I had brothers or sisters, who my relatives were, what I was interested in. Heck, I wasn't even sure what I looked like.

A strange sound that was probably unheard of by the better half of the population reached my ears, interrupting my thoughts. I looked up, though kept my head tilted down slightly, and what I saw I instantly knew was not considered 'normal'. A pool of black had formed in the ground a little ways away from me, a wispy, black opening, which I assumed was a doorway, formed from that, made of the same substance.

A man stepped out of the dark doorway, the…portal (I guess) closing the next instant. The figure was, to say the very least, a suspicious looking one, dressed all in black. His boots were black. The neck-to-ankle long cloak was black, a single silver zipper running down the length of it, and silver drawstrings hanging down to about mid-chest. The cloak was partially zipped down. Yes, _down_. Of course, it would probably look even more peculiar if it had been zipped all the way. And maybe a little harder to walk in than one would like.

The most suspicious thing was the hood. He had it pulled up. I could tell, now that he had drawn close enough, that yes, it was a he. I'm sorry, but any female with that much muscle wasn't natural. I'm not too fond of body builders, male or female. Its okay for a girl to be strong and have muscle, don't get me wrong. But when they look like their doctor injected a few shots of steroids rather than a vaccination by mistake, I get kind of freaked out.

Anyways, the hood covered the entire head of the black-cloaked man, and the shadows within had seemed to engulf his face. It was hard to see anything under that hood, even as he came to a stop before me. I tilted my head back, comparing the difference in our heights.

Interesting.

Either I was really short or someone had snuck miracle grow in his food as a child. Because I really didn't even come up level with his chest, I'd like to think that it was the latter, to be brutally honest.

I averted my gaze for a moment under his hard stare, returning my eyes to him after only a couple seconds. How did I know he was firmly planting his gaze on me as if knowing that I would be here, confused and lost and alone? I don't know. It was one of those things that you couldn't explain, you could just feel. Currently, I could feel his eyes boring into me with an intensity unimaginable to even the greatest of stage actors under the stare of a harsh critic.

It made me feel even worse. Exposed and slightly self-conscious. It was hard to look at him in the eyes. Or, at least, where I _thought_ his eyes would be.

And then he spoke. Initially and unimportantly, his voice scared the crap out of me. Don't laugh. If you were in my situation, knew nothing about anything, and some guy popped out of a hole in the ground, dressed all in black, really shady looking…staring at you from under the confines of his shadowy hood…you'd be freaked out too. Don't deny it. I didn't jump or anything when he spoke, but it was enough to send a shiver down my spine.

His voice was low. _Really _low. Ridiculously low. And he spoke slowly, drawling over every vowel and prolonging each of his words. Sometimes a more guttural kind of sound would follow, stifled under his words. It made me vaguely wonder if he was forcing himself to speak that way, in which case it was just…gratuitous.

Something in the pit of my stomach told me that was his true voice though, and he was forcing nothing into it at all.

"Do you want to know?" he asked, his sentence dragging on longer than I thought necessary. His deep, drawling voice, dripping with authority and superiority, forced another feeling upon me. I felt inferior under his gaze now, hesitating only for a short moment. Strangely, I found that I knew what he was asking me, what he was talking about. Once, I nodded.

When I looked up cautiously again, he had raised an arm up to his chest. Slowly, he swept his hand across the air in front of my face once from right to left (although, to him, it was left to right), letters forming as his hand passed. S…O…R…A.

Sora?

The letters were big, each probably about the size of my head, if not bigger. They shined a light blue in color, slowly fading in and out from being blue, to going translucent. I stared, unable to avert my gaze.

In the next moment, I slowly returned my gaze to the ground, my head tilting back down.

"You feel nothing," he spoke again, slowly as before. "You can feel nothing." What did he mean? Somewhere, I knew what he meant…I just hadn't acknowledged it yet. I looked back up at the name before me. Sora. The name was distantly familiar. I couldn't put a face to it or even remember where I'd heard it though. It was like trying to remember the face of that Steven kid you sat next to every day in Biology three years ago but never talked to. It sounded familiar, but it meant nothing to me. "Do you want a meaning?"

I did. I did want a meaning. I knew the name before me was not my own. I wanted my own meaning—my own name. Living in the shadows of someone else wasn't something I, or (I hope) anyone, would want. Again, I nodded my head once, this time with much more confidence.

The cloaked man drew his hand back once again, sweeping it across the length of the name before me. As if on command, the letters began to circle me, going around and around until I could see almost nothing but a blue light that shot across my line of vision in an instant. I didn't bother trying to follow the word with my eyes.

He pulled his hand back yet again, and threw it out, palm open as if commanding the letters to stop. And they did. Instantly, a few feet away from my face. Only…there was an extra letter, one that hadn't been there before, and the letters were scrambled, no longer reading 'Sora'. The large 'X' in the middle of the scrambled letters shined a golden-yellow color and the hooded man made another subtle hand motion.

In a flash of light, the letters had zoomed in, stopping right before my eyes. I looked back up, focusing my gaze on the single, new word that had formed before me. The 'X' stood out most prominently, being the largest letter, and a different color. "…Roxas…" I read the word aloud, and as I did all the letters changed to shine the golden hue of the 'X'.

As his eyes bored into me again, I could almost feel the smile that was on his face. "A new you," he declared.

'A new you'? What was that supposed to mean? Hadn't I always been the way I was? Did I really go through such a colossal change in my fourteen year old life that I could be called 'a new Roxas'? Honestly, I couldn't tell you. I couldn't think of a way to respond, so I kept my mouth shut and returned my wondering gaze to my name. I must have looked confused, so much that I wouldn't be surprised if smoke started coming out of my ears in a minute. Not out of anger, but I was sure that my brain was being fried as I tried to think.

It must have been evident in my features, for my name began to fade and I tilted my head back up to look at Xemnas inquiringly. "I have come to make a proposition to you, Roxas," he said. Now that I think about it…maybe it was a _good_ thing he spoke so slowly. I'm not sure I would have been able to comprehend what he'd said if he spoke any faster. I was still trying to collect my thoughts and hunches on everything that had so far happened and what was going on.

"I come to you with open arms--" Okay…this was progressively becoming more and more disturbing on my part, and I was steadily growing increasingly uncomfortable and fidgety under his unwavering, intimidating stare. "—offering you a spot in my Organization—Organization XIII."

I stared. For a long moment, I stared. My thoughts were currently on that hood. Did he really think I was so stupid that I would walk into a dark doorway that popped out of a hole in the ground with a man who I couldn't see the face of and spoke like he was trying to seduce every living thing within a ten mile radius? Considering I was the closest thing with a beating heart, I was a little uptight. If he made any weird moves, I knew right then that I'd be out of there like a bullet.

Surprisingly enough, as if he could hear my thoughts, he brought both his hands up slowly, pulling his hood down to reveal the unforgettable face of a man. His hair was long and silver, fashioned into a rather strange style. His somewhat long silver bangs framed his slightly tanned face, falling to about his chin.

None of this caught my attention right away though. No.

What initially caught my attention were his eyes. No wonder I had been fidgety under his gaze, despite the fact that I hadn't even been able to see his eyes. They weren't a shocking blue or green, or even deep brown, almost so brown they looked black. No…his eyes—they were a piercing _orange_.

I turned my gaze to the ground for a second, staring intently. It wasn't so much that his gaze made me uncomfortable as it confused me. I was simply trying to figure out…why I wasn't suddenly more timid or daunted than I was before. I knew I should be high-tailing it out of there, but something kept my feet firmly planted to the ground I stood on, only feet away from this bizarre man.

"I am Xemnas," he started his introduction slowly, and I caught onto every word quicker than I had been before. That was a good sign at least. "Leader, founder, and Superior of Organization XIII."

Darn it. Lost me again. What was Organization XIII, anyways? That was the second time that he had brought it up.

"It is a group of Nobodies that I have recruited in order to successfully accomplish our number one goal—to retrieve that which has been cruelly and unjustly ripped away from us." He really should stop answering my thoughts like that. It was becoming excessively annoying, not to mention eerie.

He stared at me for a long moment. Apparently, I was supposed to understand what he was talking about. I glanced to the right, my hand twitching at my side slightly as he stared at me expectantly.

I remained silent though. I would rather stay quiet than make myself look stupid. Which was exactly how I felt at the moment.

Apparently, my silence was frustrating, for he exhaled slowly. "Our h--"

The man looked about ready to pull his hair out when he was interrupted. Another strange sound came to my ears, same as the first. It was a quiet kind of whirring sound and, when I craned my head to look, I saw that just a few feet behind 'oh mighty Superior', another dark doorway had formed out of thin air.

This time, a much younger looking man sauntered out of the darkness, arms lazily crossed over his chest. I can say for sure that he looked highly amused, with a smirk on his face that just screamed his desire to snicker. He was a strange sight, for sure, tall and far too skinny, lanky almost; he reminded me of a cat in that aspect. His skin was pale and his eyes were a shocking mixture of blue and green, more green than blue, but sometimes appearing more teal than green. Under each of his eyes was a tattoo...or maybe it was make-up. I wasn't sure.

However, none of this was what first had my attention. The first thing to catch my eye was the wild mane of flaming red hair. I was instantly reminded of a hedgehog, spiked up and back, two strands hanging down in front of his ears, kind of framing his face. It sounds insane, and trust me, it is, but I think he was the only one who could ever even dream of pulling that hairstyle off.

"What is it _now_, Number VIII?" Xemnas' voice drawled out to the man I was still staring in slight wonder and awe at. The cocky-looking red-head seemed to pay no attention to me, having only looked me in the eye once (and briefly so) as he was coming out of the darkness. Xemnas sounded like he had a headache at the guy's mere appearance.

"They need you back at headquarters." I noticed how he said 'they', not 'we'. Even I knew at first glance that he was so obviously one of them. He wore the same exact cloak, after all.

Xemnas stared for a long moment, and when he spoke again, it was almost reluctant. "Dare I ask…why?"

Here, the red-head's smirk grew, and let me tell you, it was a smirk to match the Devil's. "Well…Demyx was playing his Sitar and it was one of his…less practiced songs. Number VII didn't knock, just barged right in Dem's room, and Waterboy was having another water-park fiasco in there. Saix's now drenched and rampaging around the place. I'm pretty sure he's trying to kill Demyx. I tried to tell Number VII that killing wasn't aloud, but he actually _hissed _at me, I think. And this, sir, is what happens to Saix when you're not around for him to suck up to." Even his tone was both cocky and cynical.

"I'm really not in the mood for your mouthing off right now, Axel. How did this happen?" Xemnas stressed, and I could tell that he had expected things to go well for once. "I left Number II in charge."

"Ah, yes. Trust Xigbar to baby-sit us all. He's watching it all with a bowl of overly buttered popcorn in his arms, chanting Demyx on. Number VI is informing Xigbar of just what he's eating—a heart attack in a bowl...though I haven't figured out _why _that matters...Anyways, Number XII is threatening to shock them all to Timbuktu, Luxord is laughing it all up with Xigbar, and--"

"Enough!" Xemnas snapped, wiping the smile off my face. I was trying not to laugh at the chaos that had seemed to ensue within Xemnas' precious Organization XIII. He'd made it sound so formal and serious with this huge goal that they had to accomplish. And here, this wild, red-haired man had sauntered onto the scene, describing something completely opposite of what I imagined the Organization would be like.

"Number VIII," the Superior started, eyes closed as he apparently tried to control his temper. "This is Roxas," he waved a hand in my general direction and I averted my gaze to the ground.

With his arms crossed again, the red-haired man's eyes widened and he turned to look at me, then back to Xemnas. "Gee, Superior. I never would have guessed," he shook his head, feigning shock.

"Axel—"

The red-head held his hands up in his defense to the narrowed orange eyes that were now directed at him. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Not in the mood. Just leave it to me. I'll explain things to the kid while you go deal with the catastrophic Organization."

As I watched this strange scene before me, Xemnas seemed to make sure to keep his glare locked on Axel before telling him, "I'll deal with you later," in what I thought was supposed to be a dangerous tone. But Axel didn't seem fazed at all.

We both watched as Xemnas fell back into that same darkness that he'd come from and I glanced down at my feet when I felt Axel's gaze on me. "Okay, so let's get this straight," the teal-eyed man spoke, decreasing the distance between us. "The name's Axel. A-X-E-L. Commit it to Memory."

I looked up with a raised eyebrow, confused. Did he always speak like that? It sounded kind of stupid…rehearsed, like he was trying to sound cool. He seemed to be waiting for something and I fidgeted under his gaze as well, I found. Gosh. Was that something I'd live with the rest of my life? Fidgeting under the gazes of other people and being unable to look them in the eye?

"Um…Roxas," I offered quietly. Finally the intensity of his gaze lifted somewhat and he smiled.

"Good," he drawled. "You haven't forgotten your manners." I stared at him incredulously for a long moment in which he chuckled. "I hear they had quite a bit of trouble with Xaldin and Saix on that. But I highly doubt either of them were nearly as bad as Larxene." He sighed, falling into some kind of deep reverie. "I dunno. Maybe Larxene never had manners to begin with."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "Er…who _are_ you?"

His eyes narrowed in response. "What? Do you have some kind of short-term memory loss? I thought you committed it to--"

"No!" I cut him off, trying to get my message across clearer. Whoever he was, there was a colossal possibility that he was even more bizarre than Xemnas. "I remember your name, but that doesn't tell me who you _are_."

He leaned away from me a little, smirking slightly and shrugging his shoulders. "That's not important. I'm no one special, really."

I rolled my eyes impatiently. "Everyone is _someone_."

"Oh, you'd be surprised," the scrawny, pale, red-haired man smirked at me, his eyes glinting with a kind of knowledge I didn't have. I knew by that look he was screaming, "I know something you don't know!" repeatedly in his head.

"What're you _talking _about?" I stressed, growing frustrated with this—with him. One, red eyebrow shot up in response to my question and his gaze became intent again. When I only stared at him, waiting for an answer, his smirk slowly began to slip off his face and the intensity of his eyes started to ebb away again.

He shifted slightly, slouched, and raised a hand slowly to scratch the side of his head. "Boy. Xemmy didn't tell you a _thing_, did he?"

It wasn't a question.

But I shook my head anyways.

He sighed in response and ran a hand through his hair. "Man, oh man, have I got a lot to tell you." Another sigh escaped his lips and I shifted my weight to one foot, glancing from side to side. "Come on, kid. Let's find somewhere more comfortable."

"Why?" Shrugging off my slight irritation with his newfound nickname for me, I couldn't stop myself from asking the classic question. I used it in the same tone little kids did when they all they asked was 'why' for five minutes straight, no matter how many different answers you gave them. I'll never understand why they find that so amusing... Either way, that's not how I intended my inquiry to sound.

Once again, the red-head sighed. Walking closer, he placed a hand on my shoulder. I tilted my head back to look him in the eyes again, taking note that I only came up to about the middle of his chest. "Look…I'm going to be talking a lot, explaining things to you that you're more than likely not going to believe. We should go somewhere. Have a seat. Talk about it. You can make a decision later. Come on." He patted me on the shoulder like I was his long-time, good friend, but I was positive that I had never seen this guy in my life.

He's not someone easy to forget.

I hesitated as he walked away, fighting with myself. I didn't have many choices here. The only reasonable ones were: A) Trust and follow him wherever he took me, B) Don't follow him and stand here looking like an idiot, or C) Follow him until there was actually more than one way to go, then take off in the other direction.

The more I thought, the more I found that, strangely, I trusted him. I trusted him enough to follow him, and even if my judge of character was completely off and he turned out to be some murderous, raving lunatic, I had a feeling that I could defend myself. Of course…I didn't have a weapon to fight with, but that was just a minor setback. Maybe I didn't need one.

He led me through the one and only opening into a thick forest where the sunlight was suddenly smothered out almost entirely. There was a kind of trail leading through the trees, swerving around a little to an opening. We had no trouble maneuvering our way through the small forest. I guess there was really no need to maneuver though—Axel seemed to know exactly where he was going.

I looked up, glimpsing patches of the sky through the thick leaves and branches. I wondered if the weather here, wherever I was, was always sunny and reasonably warm like this. Or was it just a one-time kind of thing? I don't think I could stand rain all the time. Not in the summer, at the very least. But was it even summer? Or was it fall and today was the last sunny day I'd see for the next few months?

Finally looking away, I found an interest on the ground first, but that quickly passed and I returned my gaze to Axel slowly, taking note of how he walked. He even walked like a feline, slow and sauntering, but long and lazy strides. If he was a fast walker, I'm not sure I would be able to keep up in all my short-legged glory.

Up ahead there was light, a break in the high wall that seemed to separate the forest from civilization on the other side. There was a large, gaping hole in the stone wall, as if it were a secret entrance to the mysterious woods with the old mansion on the other side.

Only…y'know, the secret entrance was out in the open, right there in plain sight to anyone and everyone. So, I suppose it kind of took the 'secret' out of the entrance which, in essence, ripped all the fun away and defeated the whole purpose of having a secret entrance.

I still wonder why no one's fixed that wall. I doubt it'll ever happen.

Axel stepped out into the daylight and stood aside for me. I walked out hesitantly, not really listening to him, but somehow hearing him. "This is the Tram Common," he informed me. "You've got shops, you've got the tram, you've got the…streets and the…people…" he trailed off into his sentence once again, realizing that the place wasn't so grand after all. "Eh, whatever. The best thing about it is the little candy shop. Other than that, the only fun thing to do is people-watch."

So…he enjoyed watching people and seeing them make fools of themselves. Okay. It was obvious that he thought the place to be rather boring though. But…boring or not…I loved it. It looked so homey. Warm and welcoming.

"Feel free to…I dunno, look around or something," the red-head muttered on, though I wasn't listening by now. I gazed around the Tram Common in a wonder that I can't really explain. I don't know what it was about the place, but it was just…perfect. The ground was tiled. Not concrete. Not dirt or grass. Not rocks. Tiles. They were a brownish-red color, an assortment of differently sized rectangles. There was a tram track twisting through the Tram Common, weaving around buildings. The buildings weren't all the same color either. Some were a light greenish color, others were pale purple, and others were as simple as tan and brownish-red. Some buildings were taller and thinner than some, while others were shorter and wider.

I turned to look at Axel slowly, staring at him for a moment. He was looking at me, warily it would seem. He seemed unsure of me or something, maybe unconvinced? But of what…well, _I_ was unsure. "Where did you want to go again?" I asked, realizing that he never actually mentioned.

"Uh…probably the train station. There's a clock tower." He shrugged his shoulders and nodded to the left of us. I turned that way, taking a few hesitant steps forward and trying to figure out why the fact that there was a clock tower mattered. Did he have a hot date that he just couldn't miss?

For a moment, my eyes wandered to the track and I looked to the right. The tram was coming closer and, before I knew it, Axel had passed me, coming to a stop right in the middle of the tracks. "Don't worry about the tram. It's never hit anyone." I raised an eyebrow, watching the vehicle as it came to a stop just feet from him.

Well…either he was brave…or just stupid. Maybe stupidly brave…bravely stupid. Whatever way you wanted to look at it, I guess.

I walked passed him slowly, following the track for a little ways. I stopped at an archway between two buildings, looking through it for a moment. The tram was coming up behind me, but it was still a ways back. Apparently, Axel had gotten out of the way. Where he was now though, I didn't bother looking. I stepped under the arch way, walking through it with my eyes still on the ground.

The tram passed me a minute later as I stepped off the track and kept walking, hardly glancing around. Then something peculiar happened. I heard laughter up ahead, three variations. It was a small group of three, two boys and a girl. One boy was tall and thin, dressed in camouflage-themed attire, blond hair. The other boy was shorter and…well, not quite as thin, darker hair. The girl was smaller than both of them, long brown hair cascading down her back.

They all looked so happy, talking and laughing about something that I hadn't heard, and a rather unfamiliar feeling reached me. I slowed as they passed me, not even throwing a careless glance in my direction, and came to a stop when the last of them had walked by.

For a moment, everything slowed down and was silenced. I could no longer hear the tram rattling along on the tracks, I couldn't hear footsteps or bells chiming in the distance. Nothing. The only thing that reached my ears was laughter and the voices of the three who had just passed me. One laugh was short and kind of choppy and loud, and it actually sounded like he was saying, "Ha, ha, ha" as he laughed. Another was quieter, almost more of snickering than laughing, deeper than the first. And the last was different all together, the girl's. Her laugh was light and cheerful, kind of airy.

Swiveling my body halfway around, I stared back at them as they walked, their footsteps seeming slower than I remembered when they'd been coming towards me. A pang of jealousy hit the pit of my stomach as I watched. It was unclear why, even to me. They were enjoying themselves so much, and it reminded me of how I had never had that. Something was very wrong, that's all I knew. I had never had what they had. Friends, fun. I had never laughed or talked to a friend like they were talking to each other.

Axel's hand coming down on my shoulder snapped me out of it. Suddenly, all the noise of the town was back, the threesome's laughter was suddenly distant, growing dimmer and hushed as they moved further away. The red-head only glanced at them briefly, returning his attention to me. "Hey, c'mon. You can get ice cream anywhere in this town. Well, almost." He started leading me to the left, though I was still staring back at the three until I could no longer see them.

I hadn't even noticed that they'd been eating ice cream…

"There's this candy shop here, so if you don't want to buy a whole box, you can just grab one or two there."

I didn't answer, finally turning back to look at him.

"I'll tell you what. I'll buy us some ice cream, we can eat and _then _talk." He patted me on the shoulder once again before heading off to the nearby candy shop. I stood back and watched as he held two fingers up, asking for two ice creams, I could only assume. He came back just a moment later, handing me one with a grin on his face. "Sea-salt ice cream," he informed me. "I know it sounds repulsive, but just try it."

Reaching up, I took the ice cream from him carefully, staring at it in skeptical wonder. Sea-salt ice cream? Huh. It made me think of salt water. Like, from oceans. Which wasn't all that appetizing. Looking up, it appeared that Axel was greatly enjoying the cold treat, already walking again, heading towards a large hill. Staring at the treat as though expecting it to be poisoned, I licked the corner of it, nibbling off a small cold bite. The flavor exploded in my mouth, first salty, then sweet. The flavor wasn't overpowered with salt like I thought it would be, and my eyes widened slightly.

Continuing my nibbling and licking of the delicious ice cream, I tagged along behind Axel, hardly paying attention to where we were going. I only looked up again when walking actually started to become more tedious, realizing the cause—we were going uphill again. A steep hill. Well…at least getting a work out would never be a problem in this quiet little town. Uninterested in the view—a large hill with buildings flanking it all the way up on either side—I returned my interest to my ice cream. Luckily, it wasn't melting as fast as I apprehended and, gratefully, I could enjoy the taste longer.

"Here we are," Axel declared, but with all my attention on my ice cream, I didn't register his words until a moment later…when I walked right into him. I took a hasty step back, muttering a sheepish, "Sorry" before he continued with a chuckle.

"Station Heights," he informed me, waving his gloved hand carelessly. The area was rather large and open, overlooking the town from atop a hill. To the left was a tall clock tower and the train station, the front of which was lined with glass doors.

"You wanted to come…_here _to talk?" I asked skeptically, unable to see what was great about it. "How is it any different? We'll still be sitting on the ground in the middle of a big, empty space."

"Not _here_," he hissed out a sigh. "We're going up—are you even listening to me? …Roxas?"

My (apparently short) attention span had been caught again, a reflection in the glass doors of the train station. I saw Axel in the mirror image, but my gaze was on the blond teenager with him. I cocked my head to the side and stated forward, drawing closer and closer to my reflection. I stopped only a few feet away, examining myself for the first time. Staring with my gaze at my feet, I frowned. Well, for one thing, they were too big and my shoes too flat. I had duck feet. It looked like someone had ran over my feet with their car and I was unable to get reconstruction surgery. Great.

Onto a slightly lighter note, I wasn't quite as scrawny as the red-head that was sauntering over, but I was close. My skin was pale, but not milky white or anything. My hair was blond and spiked, but, unlike some people, I didn't appear to have the ability to impale one with my hair alone. The eyes that I was staring into were blue. Not pale blue, or dark blue; not shockingly bright blue or anything special like that. Just a cerulean shade of blue.

Frowning slightly, I stared at my face, examining it carefully. Man. With a face like mine, the possible variations of pouts were endless.

"C'mon," Axel patted me on the back, bringing me back out of my thoughts. He was starting to walk around the building, so I took one last glance at my reflection and loped after him, slowing to a walk behind him. We walked all the way around to the back of the station where there was a ladder leading up to a ledge high up on the clock tower. He climbed quickly and I followed, vaguely wondering why there wasn't an elevator or something.

Before I could pull myself up over the ledge, a black-gloved hand was lowered to me, stopping me in my tracks. I stared at his hand and then looked up to gaze at Axel curiously. That was the moment that I realized something. He was different from his group. Xemnas instantly struck me as the kind of person who wouldn't have stopped to help me, would have kept on walking and talking about something or other, half of which I would miss because I would still be pulling myself up from the ladder.

I didn't know what he was doing. Judging by his outer appearance, he didn't look like one to stop and help a crying little kid with a scraped knee. ...Not that I'm comparing myself to a sniveling six year-old or anything. I'm just saying that rather than seeming like the kind to help me or walk off talking, and leave me there to struggle, he seemed like the kind who would stand over me and _watch_ me struggle instead.

Y'know. The cocky, smart-ass kind of guy who gets amusement out of those things.

I disregarded my thoughts and reached up to take his hand, holding my ice cream in between my teeth so I wouldn't drop it. Axel stepped back and helped me as I pulled myself up. The ledge was wider than I had thought—we could both walk along it, side by side (with room to do so), without feeling like we would fall off. I glanced to the left and right; the ledge continued on in both directions for a little ways and then both turned to the sides of the clock tower which would turn again to the front of it.

When I turned the second corner, I wasn't ready for what I saw. The town was larger than I had thought, though I could only assume that this wasn't _all_one town. I could see, from up there, where neighborhoods turned into towns and where towns began to connect and gradually turn into other towns, but I was only thinking of the town closest—the town in which the clock tower stood.

The farther and farther out I looked, the more and more all the buildings and homes began to thin out until there was nothing but vast, rolling green hills and that was all I could see until the hills met the sky.

I walked forward slowly, taking it all in. Maybe it's silly, but I felt like I was on top of the world up there and I slowed to a stop at the edge of the tower, staring out at the great view.

"It gets better at sunset," Axel informed me from behind. I had forgotten, for the moment, that he was there and I was just now remembering. I nodded slowly and he walked past me, stopping at about the center of the long ledge. Still staring out at the scenery and walking slowly, I followed only to come to a stop by his side. "Twilight Town." He regarded it strangely, speaking the name quietly. It seemed as though he knew the town well, like he visited it often. It was evident that the group he was with did not live here because I was sure that he wouldn't have spoken in such wonder if they did, and I questioned whether he longed to live here instead.

I looked away from him, and back out at the town. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him sit down and followed his lead. Silently, we went back to eating our ice cream quickly. I didn't like the silence, even if it wasn't an uncomfortable one, so I decided to break it. I remembered back when Xemnas told Axel he would deal with him later and I wondered what he had meant.

"Are you going to get in trouble?" I inquired.

He looked over at me, cocking an eyebrow. "What?" he asked, confused by my random question.

I agreed that my question was somewhat out of the blue and shrugged. "Earlier, back in the clearing," I began quietly, taking another bite out of the salty-sweet treat in my hand. "Xemnas said he'd deal with you later. Are you gonna get in trouble?"

Axel chuckled. "Oh. What, for being a smart-ass?" He laughed again, this time louder. "Nah. I mouth off so much that every once in a while, when he's in a really bad mood, he'll give me a lecture or something, but I don't really get punished."

He was silent for a moment, before adding on thoughtfully, "I'm not implying that you should run around mouthing off all the time though. If Demyx mouthed off to Xemnas…yeah. There'd be trouble."

I glanced over. He sat lazily with one leg dangling over the edge and the other brought up to his chest. His arm rested lazily on that as he licked away at his ice cream. "Why?" It seemed unfair that one wouldn't get in trouble for mouthing off, but another would.

"Because. He's not like us. I mean, he's one of us, of course, but he's different. More innocent, I think. So he doesn't mouth off much, but when he does, Xemnas, or one of the higher ranks, know that if they punish him enough, he'll stop." Here, a smirk twisted its way onto his lips and he looked at me. "Me? I don't stop. I've been mouthing off since day one and they've tried punishment. They figure I can't help it, that I…_inherited _it, if you want to call it that."

I nodded slowly, but my head swam in confusion. Nothing he said made sense. What did he mean by 'not like us'? Or…when he said this Demyx guy was more innocent? What was 'higher ranks' supposed to mean?

"You're confused."

Again, he wasn't asking me a question. Apparently, it was evident on my face that I was utterly lost. I nodded and a small grin tugged at the corners of my lips for the first time since I'd woken up in the clearing. Somehow though, smiling felt strangely more familiar on my face than frowning. "Yeah," I laughed quietly to myself. "Is it that obvious?"

"None of us really understand from the get-go." He shrugged his shoulders once, briefly, and then glanced at me. He studied me intently for a moment and I wished that I knew what he was thinking. A moment later he turned away, mumbling something that I didn't catch under his breath.

We finished our ice cream in silence, staring out at the view that sitting up on the clock tower provided. I finished first, fiddling with the thin wooden Popsicle stick I was left with, flipping it in between each of my fingers absentmindedly. I knew 'the talk' was coming, but what that talk would contain and provide me to dwell on, I had no idea. Curiosity had me wrapped around its finger; I was engulfed in it. From what both Xemnas and Axel had said, whatever Axel was going to explain sounded interesting. But…not necessarily in a good way. I wasn't completely sure if I really wanted to know what he had to say. Either way, I knew I would leave this clock tower later with a new knowledge that I didn't have before.

Axel heaved out a sigh and I turned to look at him, frowning slightly. He held my gaze and forced something of a grin. "You still hungry?" he asked hopefully, and I had the impression that he was trying to keep from talking about it for a while.

"No," I shook my head from side to side and he sighed again.

"I guess I can't really beat around the bush anymore, then, huh?"

"Not really."

Another sigh reached my ears and this boosted my curiosity. Why didn't he want to tell me about the Organization? What was the big deal? He was with them, and he couldn't really deny it since he was sitting right there in one of their cloaks.

"So, tell me, Roxas," the red-head turned to stare intently at me. "What do you know about Heartless?"

My brow furrowed and I frowned. "Heartless…?" I repeated unsurely. Because I had been convinced I had heard him wrong, it only threw me off more when he nodded. "Heartless…I—I've never heard of Heartless."

With narrowed eyes and a frown of his own, Axel appeared just as confused as I was. "Never heard of…huh." He ran a hand through his hair lazily and shrugged, dismissing my words.

"Why? What are they?" I asked slowly, my eyes narrowed.

He looked over at me for a long moment, scrutinizing my face, trying to see something. It looked like he was trying to see if I was lying for some reason, or if I really _didn't_ know what they were…almost like he thought I _should _know. Then, before I could ask what he was doing, he was looking away again.

"Heartless are creatures born from the darkness in peoples' hearts," Axel explained slowly, staring out at the rolling green hills. "As you might have guessed, they don't have hearts themselves, hence their name. This makes them bodiless, soulless. Supposedly, they can't feel emotion because of it." There was a short silence as I stared at him in confusion. "They're not natural," he added thoughtfully. "Just an outcome of experiments conducted by a man and his apprentices."

Two thin, blond eyebrows shot up as I listened. Was he seriously implying that some guy created creatures through an experiment? That seemed a little bizarre. Actually, his entire introduction seemed bizarre.

"Anyways…as they don't have one of their own, they're always yearning for hearts, searching for them." He still hadn't looked at me as he spoke. Even though his gaze was still directed to the scenery, they had a sort of glazed over look, as if he was sitting here, but he was miles away at the same time. "The hearts that they manage to extract from the living turn into heartless themselves."

That was enough to catch my attention. I sputtered incoherently and shook my head; I was glad that I hadn't been drinking anything. "Whoa—wait, what?" I stuttered. "They take _hearts _from people?" The tone of my voice held nothing but sheer disbelief and my eyes were wide with shock. That was definitely something I hadn't expected him to say. "How is that even _possible_?"

Axel nodded once. "Look, I know it sounds crazy. But bear with me here?" I nodded numbly, and that was all he needed to continue. "When a Heartless is born, so is another creature—a Nobody. Without hearts of their own, _they_ exist only as the body and soul of people who lost their heart to darkness."

When silence fell, I could only stare at Axel, speechless. I didn't understand. I thought this talk was supposed to be something that helped me understand more about…well, everything. Why I woke up in the middle of an unfamiliar place with no memories of any life previous. Why I couldn't remember something so simple as my name, much less anything else about myself. It was supposed to be helping. But I felt more confused now than before we had sat down to talk.

"None of this makes any sense," I blurted without really thinking. "I mean, why are you telling me all this? What's the point?"

For a few minutes, I thought Axel had forgotten about my presence as he gazed across Twilight Town distantly, his lips pursed and eyes unfocused. For a moment, he wasn't here again, lost in thought somewhere far off. When he spoke, his voice was just above a whisper. "Sometimes, when a strong-hearted person is attacked by a heartless—well, they still go through the same thing. They're body fades into darkness and they're replaced by a new heartless and new nobody. But if their heart is strong enough, their nobody takes on a different form—a human form. They're called advanced forms. I like to think of them as…elite Nobodies."

"Why?" I cut him off before he could say anything further.

"Well, it just…sounds more human…to me, I guess."

"They're not human?" My eyes widened in awe. Axel shook his head once and I looked slowly out at Twilight Town. "Wow…"

"They don't have hearts, remember?" I nodded in response to his inquiry, keeping quiet as he continued. "They…were never meant to exist."

The muscles in my face relaxed slightly and my face fell. The only part of my face that wasn't relaxed were my narrowed eyes. "That's awful…" I muttered. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw him nod once. After another few minutes of silence, I shook my head again. "But I still don't get it—what does this have to do with Organization XIII?"

"Everything." His tone was flat and the answer came much too fast. I fell silent. "Organization XIII is made up of a group of elite nobodies. Currently, our first priority, our main goal is to get hearts of our own—one day." A short pause followed this and I looked over, trying to read his expression. Yet again, he was staring at the town, gazing up at the sky. The blue sky had begun changing color—sunset wasn't that far off now. "Everyday, they yearn for hearts of their own..." I was positive that when he said 'they', he meant that he did too.

Everything Axel told me took a great deal of concentration to understand and to believe. I almost couldn't believe it, but I think the reason I didn't was more because I didn't _want_ to. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that I wouldn't like where this was going. "Hold on…I thought you said that nobodies don't have emotions, that they can't feel anything?"

Axel's eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he gazed at the sky. "They…remember what it's like, having a heart." He spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. "They're not _supposed_ to feel anything. But, once upon a time, they did. I suppose you could say that they _remember_ feeling feelings and emotions. They're not supposed to actually _feel_ them, though."

"But you do," I muttered, not bothering to say 'they' as he did.

He nodded, muttering, "Yeah. We do." And for the first time, it really hit me hard. It really sunk in deep. He was with Organization XIII. He was a Nobody. He wasn't happy. He didn't have a heart and while he seemed so unwilling to admit it, it hurt him that he didn't have one. That or he just didn't like talking about it so deeply. That would explain why he was so hesitant to explain it all, right?

I brought my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. "I'm sorry." I didn't know why I was apologizing. Maybe for making him talk about it? Not that I had really asked for the explanation…not out loud, anyways.

He chuckled. "It's not that bad." Part of me believed him. Part of me thought he was lying. Probably because he only half believed the statement himself.

The silence dragged on for quite a while this time. The sky was already turning orange and purple when I finally spoke again. "Axel?" I took the glance he threw me as him saying he was listening and continued, my voice slightly quieter than before. "I still don't understand why Xemnas wanted to tell me all this."

A sigh escaped his lips and it sounded annoyed this time. "We don't just go around telling random people everything about us, kid." When he looked at me again, there was a small smile on his face, but it was the farthest from happy I'd ever seen.

I had a hunch that I understood what he was telling me, but I didn't want to believe that that hunch was right. I gazed at the sky now, all the colors of the sunset blending together as the clouds moved across the sky slowly. My eyes narrowed as I spoke. "You're saying that…that I'm…one of you?" I didn't want to look over to see the nod. "That I'm a…Nobody. Heartless and not supposed to exist?"

"It is kind of a downer when you think about it like that," Axel shrugged. "But…the Organization's not that bad. Actually, it's kind of fun sometimes—like today, especially."

I smiled, just a little. "It doesn't sound like a very organized Organization."

Axel chuckled. "No. Sometimes, it's not."

Another long silence passed us by. I lowered my legs to dangle over the edge of the clock tower, kicking them against it like a little kid on an airplane whose feet can't touch the floor. "I'm sorry," I muttered again and he looked confused when I looked over, unable to understand where the random apology came from this time. "I don't believe you," I mumbled, glancing away.

I could still feel the intensity of his gaze burning into the side of my face though, and I edited my words. "I mean, I believe everything about the heartless and the nobodies and Organization XIII." This seemed to confuse him more and I took a deep breath. "But I don't believe that I'm a Nobody."

"Denial," he told me lightheartedly. With narrowed eyes again, I looked over. "It happens to the best of us." I only stared. I didn't believe I was heartless…I didn't believe I was an empty shell, devoid of emotions. What I had felt before, when that group of kids passed by me, if that wasn't emotion, I don't know what is. I didn't _not_ believe him just because I didn't _want_ to. I was positive that I wasn't in denial.

He could tell that his simple, one-word explanation hadn't persuaded me. "There's a simple way to solve this, you know," he started. "You just take your hand—" he lifted his hand carelessly in the air, "and lay it across your chest. Like so." Giving me an example, he laid his right hand over the left side of his upper chest, watching me, waiting for me to mirror his movements.

He smiled, but to me he lookedsad. I mean, yeah, his mouth was smiling, but his eyes weren't. They were empty, like he'd been expecting to feel something beneath his fingertips. Perhaps a steady _thump-thump_. Even if it was only faintly so, he was disappointed that that feeling was absent.

Turning away again, I closed my eyes briefly and shook my head from side to side. "I don't have to prove anything. Not to you, not to myself." A small smile tugged at the corners of my lips. "I belong here."

"You belong here?" I only nodded in response. "Okay, then," he started, his tone hinting at incredulity. "If you belong here, where's your house?" I didn't answer. "Where's your family?" Still, I had no reply. "Friends? Where are you going to sleep?"

"I'll find a place."

"You're alone here." His reply was sharp and quick, frustrated. "As much as you'd like to believe they do, no one knows you here. No one is going to stop and ask if you'd like to bunk at their house tonight. We have feather beds. We have down comforters. And we have down pillows. Nothing here is going to beat that, _especially_ not the cold, hard ground you'll be sleeping on tonight."

I met his hard gaze, his stony stare boring into me until I finally shrugged. "I'm sorry," I muttered, shaking my head (though I did think that those feather beds sounded nice...). "I just don't believe you. I'm sure I have a heart. And even if I don't have a home here, it's where I belong. Xemnas made a mistake." I tore my eyes away and stared at the sunset, fully confident in what I said.

Another sigh reached my ears, and this time it sounded defeated. "Whatever you say, kid," Axel grumbled, settling back to watch the sun set too.

"Roxas," I corrected without a thought, slightly irritated with the nickname he had been using for me all throughout our conversation.

Only a few minutes of silence passed between us before he exhaled deeply again. I looked up as he spoke. "Well, my business is complete. I told you all you needed to know, and now, I should get going before someone comes looking for me."

Nodding, I stole a quick glance at the ledge we sat on. "Before you do, I just have one question."

"Shoot."

"Well…if I'm wrong…about belonging here—" I didn't want to say 'about having a heart', "—and I _do _join, will the name by changed to Organization XIV?"

One of his red eyebrows shot up in confusion and then lowered quickly as he narrowed his eyes. He didn't appear mad, just inquiring. "…Why?"

"Well…because," I started, glancing at the ground. "I don't want to be nobody amongst nobodies—_if _I'm wrong."

"What are you getting at?" He was still lost.

"Well," I began again. "It's called Organization XIII, right?" He nodded slowly. "If I'm coming in, then there'll be fourteen members, and if you don't change the—"

"Oh, no." Axel shook his head, a grin cracking across his face. "You'll be number XIII."

My eyes narrowed in confusion. "You only have twelve members?"

"Mhm."

"Then why is it called—"

"Hell if I know," he snorted. By the look of it, he had fallen into a brief thought. "Well…maybe it's because…Xemnas knows you'll join."

"Can Xemnas see into the future?" I asked him, allowing him to see the extent of my doubt. He chuckled, and it made me kind of angry. I was being serious. Unless Xemnas could see into the future, he didn't know anything. He didn't _know _whether or not I would join.

"I'll see you around, kid," Axel bade me goodbye, though I figured it had a double meaning. Once again, he was assuring me that I would join his group, and that's where he would 'see me around.' Well, that's how I took it, anyways.

I didn't respond, only watched him with an unwavering stare as a pool of black began to gather around him. He was still sitting there though, as if waiting for me to have a sudden epiphany and realize, "Hey, I _am_ heartless! Why don't I go with you?"

I looked away, focusing my attention on the town and the sunset, watching the bright orange fade into a light shade of pink, which began to take on a purple tone. I didn't need the Organization; I wasn't what they thought I was. I was sure I had a heart and no one else's opinion mattered. If I didn't have a heart, I would _know_. It would be obvious to me. Besides. Everyone knows you can't live without a heart.

I wallowed in these thoughts for a long time, though for how long I wasn't sure. I had been watching the sunset, but it would seem that I hadn't been really seeing it, considering that I finally shook my head and looked around, the sun had almost dipped completely below the horizon. I turned to my left, though I realized right before I turned that Axel was gone—I could no longer hear the quiet whirring of the portal. But, that didn't stop me from turning to look to my right as well.

Getting gingerly to my feet, I yawned and stretched my arms out. Whether it was late or not, I was tired and I wanted to get some sleep. But as I made my way back down the ladder at the back of the clock tower, I realized that I didn't have to pretend anymore. I didn't have to put on a smile and lie to anyone.

Don't get me wrong—I knew I wasn't heartless and that I belonged here more than at any Organization. But I also knew that Axel was right about a few things: I didn't have a home. I didn't have a family, not here at least. I had no friends. No one would pass me by on the street and recognize me from school. They wouldn't ask me if I wanted to sleep in their spare bedroom until further notice.

I was alone in Twilight Town.

* * *

**A/N: **Hooray for boring introductory chapters. I promise it'll get more...exciting later. I already have plans for later chapters and whatnot.

Anyways, this is my first real fanfiction that I've ever planned on posting on any site. Or continuing, for that matter. Updates will be kind of slow, considering I re-read over what I've written about a thousand times and add and take paragraphs at a time out. And there are still errors, I'm sure. Plus writer's block can be a huge problem with me sometimes.

Anyways, reviews are loved. I don't mind constructive critisism. **Constructive**, people. That means I don't want a review saying, "Your writing sucks, I hate it, blah, blah, blah." Basically, no flaming, please. Because I really don't care what you have to say if that's the case. But if I get some constructive critisism I'll try to work on it.

x3 Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter.


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